Duke Thinking Online

Thursday, March 20, 2014

I have been fascinated by the fast adoption of driver assist technology in cars.

My daughter just bought a new Honda mini van. It has back up cameras that frame the space in colored lines to tell you how close you are to hitting something. Then it beeps at your if you are too dense to understand the lines.

I get beeped at a lot.

It also has a right side camera so you can see the right lane behind you for turns or merging.

I drive a 1985 Ford F-150 that has an AM radio and heat. This is amazing enough for me.

But all this is nothing compared to other driver assist tech on cars today.

Now I am thinking about maybe getting a new car instead of waiting for a self driving car.

While you can never argue about these improvements making cars safer, the reduction in accidents is going to have a ripple effect that will take money out of the pockets of many businesses.

If you have fewer accidents there will be fewer cars to be repaired at body shops. And fewer people to be repaired in emergency rooms. And fewer speeding tickets paid to law enforcement. And lower insurance premiums to insurance carriers. And lower commissions to insurance agents.

My Need for a Self Driving Car Recently

I spent a month in Australia and two weeks in England this year. Normally I rent cars when I travel. But I did not want to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road - I must be getting old.

I would have paid a nice premium to be able to rent a self driving car on these trips.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

How Will Discovery Drive Transactions? Is search really being replaced by discovery through social recommendations? If not, then I believe it is certainly being competed with and supplemented big time.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

the world of smart phone apps is changing faster than anyone can keep up with it. Still, the basics of relationship building apply when deciding what makes a great phone app.

Here is my current list of the top three things that make a grat small business phone app"

Interaction: To be effective your agency phone app must be interactive. If not, the app experience will fall flat. A great Agency phone app allows your customers and prospects to interact with you and your business at multiple levels

Connection: A great phone app increases connection to your app users. It will increase both the number of connections and the quality of connections.

Relationship: The net result of interactive connections is establishing and building relationships. A great phone app helps you solidfy your relationship with your customers and prospects.

Features I Think You Should Have in Your App

1 - Personal connection page for each staff member with picture and contact info - phone, email, LinkedIn, etc - and a short bio